As the obesity epidemic grows in scope, so too does the “blame game.” Lack of exercise, over-consumption of food, sedentary work environments, lifestyle choices, biological predispositions, genes…the list of possible culprits for America’s fatness goes on.
Fast food is a common target. Earlier this month, an advocacy group launched a campaign petitioning 26 hospitals across the country to remove a major fast food restaurant from their cafeterias with the aim of sending a “better message” to consumers.
Some of the reasoning behind the group’s initiative comes from a 2006 study published in the journal Pediatrics that concluded that allowing fast food centers to operate in hospitals not only affects guests’ consumption of fast food on the day of their visit, but also unintentionally boosts the perception of the “healthfulness” of fast food in general. Here’s more research that supports the initiative:
Courtesy of wagnerfpa.wordpress.com.
So being near to fast food increases the likelihood of obesity, but will removing fast food from hospitals (and other institutions and neighborhoods) help solve the problem?
Consider this:
Blaming fast food restaurants for obesity can place us on a slippery slope. Should we remove buses from our streets to force people to choose the less convenient, but “healthier” walking or biking options? After all, sitting for long periods of time is correlated with obesity, and most adults do not get the recommended level of exercise.
Similarly, while we should limit consumption of fast food, we can’t eliminate it from the American diet as long as there is a demand for convenient, inexpensive, and (arguably) tasty food. We need to improve health through education and develop incentives that encourage healthy lifestyle decisions, proper nutrition, and exercise.
Perhaps a partnership between hospitals and Weight Watchers (or other proven commercial weight loss programs), or the establishment of walking groups or active events within hospital walls, could promote lasting change.
We won’t make any progress in the fight against obesity by playing the blame game at the expense of taking responsibility for our health into our own hands.
Courtesy of www.topnews.in.
What do you think? Will restricting fast food lead to a decrease in obesity? How can we as individuals, families, and institutions promote a healthier America?
Courtesy of eatright.org.
March is National Nutrition Month, and this year, the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics is urging Americans to “Get Your Plate In Shape.” With the help of the “My Plate” model, which replaced the Food Pyramid in June 2011, the experts are giving us a reminder of the healthy nutrition goals we have heard before:
It’s hard to exaggerate the important of heart health when almost 600,000 million Americans die of heart disease every year. Even individuals who are apparently fit and healthy can be caught unawares by a diagnosis, so let’s take a look at the steps you can take today to give yourself the best chance at a healthy heart now and in the future.
Courtesy of hometestingblog.testcountry.com
Step 1 – Know your numbers and risk profile: Schedule a doctor’s appointment and a blood test to learn the important numbers (risk factors) for heart disease, such as your blood pressure, cholesterol level, fasting blood glucose level, and BMI.
Having multiple factors for heart disease increases your risk exponentially, and some factors, such as age, gender, family history, and race, can’t be controlled. However, knowing where you stand on the others will help you take the appropriate action; according Dr. Philip A. Ades of Eating Well, treating any one risk factor effectively halves your likelihood of developing heart disease.
Step 2 – Quit smoking (or better yet, don’t start): It’s easy for non-smokers to cite all of the negative effects of this habit as reasons to “just stop,” but they may not understand the seriousness of the lifestyle change required to quit. If it’s been a while since you have reviewed the risks associated with smoking, check them out here, and work with your doctor to develop a plan to quit.
The importance of the remaining steps cannot be understated, as they directly impact all of the remaining heart disease risk factors:
Step 3 – Adjust your diet if necessary: Making a conscious effort to reduce intake of saturated and trans fats, added sugars and sodium, and excess calories in general greatly reduces your risk for heart disease.
Some of the best ways to do that? Eat less heavily processed and refined food and substitute with more whole grains, fruits and vegetables, and lean proteins (including fish, nuts, beans, and lean meats). Keep a close eye on portion sizes of snacks and meals to lower your chances of overeating, and drink alcohol in moderation. For more healthy diet and nutrition tips from Midtown, click here.
Step 4 – Exercise more (or at the very least, sit less): Losing weight (or lowering BMI) is just one potential benefit of regular exercise. Consistent daily and weekly efforts to get up and move will help you become healthier, stronger, and more energized, and just 10 minutes of activity here and there can make a big difference.
Courtesy of www.bbc.co.uk
Once you begin consciously moving more, try adding more traditional exercise to your routine a few days per week for just a few weeks. Experiment with different activities until you settle on one that works for you. Your body and mind may not react positively right away, but if you don’t give exercise a real chance (which means a consistent effort), you will never experience the real benefits.
Step 5 – Stress less: While we hold out hope that someone will develop a “magic pill” that will banish stress from our lives forever, managing stress remains one of the most difficult aspects of our lives. Work and family commitments alone are enough to overwhelm our calendars and our worry threshold for the month. You can try to sleep more, take more time for yourself, and clear your schedule, but it’s not always possible to do those things.
So what can you do? It may help to start by identifying the centers of stress in your life and how you feel about them. Observe what happens to your mind and body when you experience stress. Knowing what causes your stress in the first place can help you gain new perspective and create coping strategies that will reduce stress and its consequences. It takes patience and practice, but you and your heart are worth it.
What are you doing to improve your heart health?
In what should come as a surprise to no one, McDonald’s self-proclaimed “bowl full of wholesome” is anything but.
mcdonalds.com
This week, Mark Bittman’s NYT column focused on the the fast food giant’s Fruit and Maple Oatmeal. As Bittman notes, the oatmeal itself contains seven ingredients, the “cream” that’s added contains an additional seven ingredients, only two of which are actually dairy, and a single serving of the menu item contains more sugar than a Snickers bar and more calories than a McDonald’s hamburger.
McDonald’s is hardly at the forefront of the “Eat Real Food” movement. The fact that they’ve managed to take something as healthy and basic as oatmeal and turn it into chemical-laden garbage is hardly newsworthy. After all, this is the company whose salads are loaded with saturated fat, sodium, and mega calories.
I agree with Bittman in that the problem here is McDonald’s marketing tactics. They’ve taken something that the population considers healthy, and they market it to the hilt as healthy and “wholesome.”
But it’s not.
Yes, it’s our job as consumers to read labels and research the nutritional components of the food we eat. We have the choice not to eat at McDonald’s, or Burger King, or their many counterparts.
And yet some don’t. And many of these people do not have the food education necessary to arm themselves against the ubiquitous giant of McDonald’s, of which there are four within five minutes of their home. These are the people most harmed by deceptive marketing techniques aimed at making them believe they are making a healthy choice when they are not.
In an ideal world, we would all be label-savvy. We would all eat real food. We would all eschew McDonald’s and live hip to the fact that when they say “wholesome” what they really mean is “wholly addicting and bad for you.”
But that’s not the world we live in. The obesity epidemic, to which fast food is a contributor, is not going anywhere, and when people make poor food choices (either because they don’t care about their bodies, or because they believe what they’re eating is healthy because McDonald’s told them so), we are all affected from the strain placed on health care costs.
So why not place limits on deceptive advertising? Why not make it illegal for a company like McDonald’s to use words like “wholesome” (whose Merriam-Webster definition is “promoting health of the body”) to describe their oatmeal, which contains, as Bittman says, “11 weird ingredients you would never keep in your kitchen.”
What do you think about McDonald’s marketing techniques? Have you tried their oatmeal? I promise, I won’t tell a soul.
